Toddlers and 2-Year Old Programming
"I'm just a kid, I have a lot of stuff to do yet."
~ Clint Eastwood
Our commitment to quality care continues in our Toddler and 2-year old rooms. Children at this age are eager learners who energetically interact with materials and people. We at the center realize that an environment and curriculum that encourages each child's growing need of independence is a basis for developing and mastering life skills and a positive self esteem. By playing in both large and small groups, these children will learn valuable social skills needed to effectively interact with others. While engaging in fun activities toddlers and 2-year olds will discover their likes and talents and will be exposed to fundamentals such as: colors, shapes, self-help skills, as well as social and language development.
Children under the age of 2 years old will have a notebook system for direct communication with their teacher(s). In this notebook the teacher will log the daily activities, feedings and the rest times of your child. Parents will be asked to list pertinent information that will ensure the individualized schedule of each child is up-to-date, to inculde but not limited to: the last time your child ate, slept and was changed, as well as mood and sleeping patterns of the night before. Parents of 2-year olds will find daily information posted in the Parent Area of the room.
Arts for Kids has an individualized program for the needs of children ages of
6-weeks to 2-years old.
All children will have individual contact and attention through feeding, diapering and learning experience.
Each child will follow their individual routine of feeding and sleeping set by their home environment.
The children will be provided with equipment to fit their educational development and creative expression appopriate to their age level.
Daily communication with parents:
~ A notebook for each child under two years of age will be sent home with parents summarizing child's activities.
Parents will bring back notebook with information for teachers.
Staff will ensure that throughout the day infants will be moved into different activities.
Potty Training Policy
If parents and the center are in agreement that a child is developmentally ready, Arts for Kids will begin to encourage potty training at age 2.
At 2-1/2 years old age, regular potty training is part of our daily program and routine. Children will be encouraged to wear pull-ups or underwear (depending on progress) and have plenty of extra pull-ups or underwear on hand. They will be taken to the bathroom every 2 hours (possibly more often at the beginning). If a child is wearing underwear, they will be put in a pull-up or diaper for naps, unless completely trained. We will use lots of praise for a "job well done" and lots of understanding when "accidents happen" if a child has a rough day.
Sometimes potty training can happen overnight and sometimes it can be a long process - we just need to have a lot of patience.
May 2023 News!
Toddler 1
Hello everyone,
We have had some very nice warm weather days in the month of April! We hope everyone enjoyed their Easter! We were busy this past month with decorating our door for “Week of the Young Child.” The fork painted flowers and handprint frogs were cute! You can display them at home. We’ve had water play with shaving cream, ice shapes (eggs), peppermint extract makes our room smell great. Plastic Easter eggs, we decorated Easter cookies with sprinkles, danced to an Easter CD. We enjoyed our month of April. We are working on goals for each child! We read books “Bunny Hop,” “Where are Baby’s Easter Eggs?,” and “Biscuit’s Pet and Play Easter.” We took a few buggy rides downtown and saw Easter decorations in store windows. We will be looking for May flowers this month. Our friends also stuck paper eggs and bunnies on the wall. We talked about colors and did counting! Enjoy the month of May!
God Bless You All,
Karen and Morgan
Toddler II
I can’t believe that it's May already. This year is going by so fast. Sadly we said goodbye to Ivy last month. We were very happy to welcomed Anna to our room.
This month we will be doing Flowers, Bugs/Insects, Mother’s Day, Balls, and Pond/Sea Life.
Have a great month!
Tina
Toddler III
Happy May!
This past month we had fun learning about colors, Easter, and sensory. The kids had the most fun doing all kinds of art work. They also loved being outside.
This month we are going to dive into spring themes like ice cream, flowers, etc. We hope it’s nice weather so we can be outside more. Don’t forget to sign up for conferences.
Ms. Marissa
2's I
Hello families!
The themes last month were Week of the Young Child, Bugs, Earth Week, and Farm. The kiddos are very excited about the warmer weather. Please make sure that your child has extra clothes here in their cubby. Weather can change very quickly this time of year also so please bring a sweatshirt or jacket/coat daily.
Our themes this month are: Star Wars/Cinco de Mayo, Mother’s Day, Pond Life, Zoo, and Pets. I’m very excited for Star Wars and so are the kiddos. We will be making Mother’s Day gifts so please make sure to look for them in or above your child’s cubby. Parents, if you have pictures of your pets that you would like to bring in that would be greatly appreciated. I will return them when pet week is over. Parents, please make sure that you’re checking their cubby for important paperwork or artwork. If you would like you can send sunscreen with your child for when it warms up. We will start using it. If you have any questions or concerns please talk to me personally or HiMama me.
I hope everyone has a wonderful month.
Thank you,
Ms. Ashley
2's-II
Mr. Jacob has been covering in our 2’s II classroom for a while now. Sadly, he will be leaving us to take the summer off. His last day is May 5th. Ms. Laura will be returning and taking over her old classroom beginning May 9th. We are so excited to have her back!
2's-III
Hello Families! Welcome to May in 2’s III!
We had a wonderful time last month in our classroom! Thank you to all who got me something for teacher appreciation day! We started the month off celebrating our favorite Eric Carle books during the week of the young child, then we explored the creepy crawly world of bugs, learned about recycling and helping our planet for Earth week, and finally we talked about farms and the animals we can find there.
We worked on our physical development by doing yoga, painting with non-traditional items like Q-tips, wadded up paper, flyswatters, and plastic bugs, and then hopping on themed items and going on bug hunts.
We worked on our social skills by working together to build Lego block structures, played catch/kickball, helped each other with matching and sorting activities, and chased each other during tag. We also learned about listening to each other and taking turns during group time. We are still working on using our words during times of conflict instead of hitting or pushing so you may hear “no, thank you, I don’t like that” or “that makes me sad/mad”. We are working on “making it better” through gentle touches like hugs or back pats when we make a friend sad through our actions.
We built our language skills by learning new vocabulary such as the word Recycle, answered the question of the day during group, worked on learning the 1st letter of our names, and sang many of our favorite songs.
We also did many thinking and imaginative activities such as playing matching and sorting games, exploring sand and water, and pretending with items such as baby bottles and dolls, farm animals, and plastic food/dishes. Our favorite pretend play was making each other meals in the kitchen area and feeding Ms. Sara a variety of treats!
This month we will be focusing on social skills and language skills with a variety of fun hands-on activities. We will start off the month with a space theme and we will be having Star Wars Day on Thursday, May 4th. If you have a Star Wars outfit (t-shirt, sweatshirt, jacket, jammies etc.) this is the day to wear it!
We are looking forward to another great month! If you have any questions or concerns about your child, please feel free to ask! If you are not able to speak to me in person, feel free to message me through HiMama. Blessings, Ms. Sara B and 2’s-III
